Croquet Mallet

Yesterday I was told that we would be playing croquet at our 4th of July family get together, so I decided to build a mallet. I had some walnut and maple scraps to work with, so the handle and mallet is made of walnut, while the mallet faces and through-dowel are of maple. I also put a steel bar inside the mallet on one side, which brought the mallet head weight to 3.5 lbs. It’s not the most complicated project, and I threw it together this morning before work. However, I like it and think that it turned out pretty well.

——Update——

I ended up making two of these that same day since my wife asked for one after I built the first one. Her’s is from cherry with walnut mallet faces. I wanted to do a walnut dowel for the contrasting color, but didn’t have time to make one..so I just burned the ends of the maple dowel with a sander. Worked out okay I guess.

Nice mallet my man! About 2 years ago, my college buddies and I were on a trip and decided to play croquet with the set that was sitting on the porch at the house we were staying in. We all fell in love with it. Being the woodworker, I was the first to make a custom mallet, but once my buddies saw it, they had to have one. They all came over one Saturday and I helped them all make their own mallets using woods they picked out. I also ended up making some very heavy duty wickets out of 5/8’ steel rod. To this day we play about once every two months and it gets really competitive. I implore you to look up the true rules and give this awesome game a chance. We all love it!

Nice job! It can be addicting. I lived in Kentucky for several years. They are serious about their croquet. Their mallets have a rubber insert on one end and a sort of fiberboard insert on the other. The handle is only about two feet long to give more control. They hit straddle the ball. There is a park in Louisville that has several pro-style courts and hold tournaments on a regular basis. Try searching for a croquet association or club in Kentucky. That might help. Have fun!